campaigned and won on a platform of higher taxes for the wealthy and the republicans say they were elected because they pledged to behind the scenes power broker grover norquist they would never raise taxes, it certainly seems that the impasse cannot be solved and we got to -- go over the cliff. not only do the hard liners refuse to rise above partisanship in order to avoid a government man-dated recession, which is what it's amounted to doing, but we can't even get them to promise no vacation without legislation! >> boo! >> they not only seem mean-spirited, petty, reckless, and angry down there in washington, they're also slothful. have you ever been able to say to your boss, walk in, you know, hey, man i know i've got a huge project due, one that could bring down the whole company, but darn it all, hey, see you later, sport, i'm taking a vacation. i'm out of here! not only do i advocate no vacation without legislation, i want to know, a new one for you. a litmus test. i want to know which of these bitter politicians have tickets in their pockets to fly out of washington next week. i'm no